Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday expressed irritation when asked why he reversed three years’ worth of interest rate cuts. “There’s no immediate benefit of raising interest rates,” Macklem told the Commons finance committee after Conservative and Liberal MPs alike opposed the October 28 increase: 'Explain to small business owners why the decision was made because I’m having a hard time explaining it to them, okay?' READ MORE
Parliament should let the courts define what “national interest” would justify quashing a lawful strike, an Air Canada executive yesterday told MPs. Unions have cautioned the ambiguous phrase does not appear elsewhere in labour legislation: "‘National interest’ is fairly vague." READ MORE
CBC News yesterday was again censured by its own Ombudsman for anti-Israel coverage. The Ombudsman cited a story by reporter Chris Brown that was so biased it breached the network’s Journalistic Standards And Practices guide: "There is one important point I’d like to address: journalistic neutrality." READ MORE
Members of the Commons science committee yesterday expressed disbelief after senior Public Health Agency staff could not explain their use of terminology like “pregnant people” to identify expectant mothers. “You can’t answer a simple question about biological reality?” asked Conservative MP Vincent Ho (Richmond Hill South, Ont.): "Should we stop using the term ‘mother’?" READ MORE
The Senate yesterday passed into law a private Conservative bill to have Parliament award national medals to living organ donors. Legislators were told no other Commonwealth country has a specific honour that recognizes organ donors: "A transplant recipient once said to me, ‘I just don’t feel that a thank you card is enough.'" READ MORE
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson is directing a Crown bank to finance “sports infrastructure,” Access To Information records show. Use of public money in sports was a priority, he said: "Investment areas of interest will emerge over time." READ MORE
Complaints over federal secrecy are running at a record pace, the Commons ethics committee learned yesterday. Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard told MPs there was no substitute for a “genuine commitment to openness.” READ MORE
My mother was a brilliant, beautiful woman, a woman with a passion for great literature, high fashion and duplicate bridge. She was a woman who disliked sentimentality of any kind, so I hope somewhere she’ll forgive me if I say I’m still haunted by the memory of the day I took her for that fateful neurocognitive exam, the day the specialist delivered the bleak diagnosis: Alzheimer’s. I failed my mother when she needed me most.
